Our Homeschool Day

A couple of people have asked me,  and we are having incredible results, so I thought I would post a little recap of what our days have been like this year as we venture into year TWO of homeschooling. I do not have anything set in stone bc we are learning, growing,  and working out the details, and I know change is inevitable.  Flexibility is one of the glorious benefits we are experiencing as we home-school.

So. In the mornings, I put Sarah straight in her seat to eat her breakfast. While I am getting all of our plates fixed, the boys practice their letters.  Sarah eats. and eats. and eats. :) They each pick 5 letters a day and use a dry erase crayon to work on writing their letters. I am going for repetition, dexterity, and improving fine motor skills with this. Which hopefully will result in good penmanship .  I was gone for five hours the other day, and when I came home, Drew (5) ran up to me so excited to show me how good he had gotten, while I was gone,  at writing the number 3. The curves are still a little hard for him, but he took the initiative to practice on his own and was so excited to show me his improvement!! Hallelujah! We both were thrilled.

The boys are usually done with their letters by the time I get their food in front of them. I give them a sticker for each letter that they complete and they LOVE that!! The stickers go on their folders and we are excited to see how fast we can get those folders filled up with stickers! ($2 for a book of 1200 stickers at Wal-Mart!)

Then we all put away our dishes and we have free time together. This involves mommy getting stuff done, Sarah playing with her toys, Sarah playing with her brothers, time to read together, time to play wii,  (yep, I will admit it, they play wii, during the day. I'm sorry, it gets hard to occupy the entire day when you are home together all day every day), sometimes we cuddle on the couch and watch Elmo, sometimes Sarah and I get showered and dressed together or whatever.  The boys may clean up or just whatever needs to be done that day. Trips to HEB, washing my car, playing with a friend, playing a game together. It's really flexible. We basically just live life together.

Snack time comes and goes, and before I know it, it's time for lunch. We sit together as a family and eat lunch and then Sarah goes down for a nap. While Sarah naps, the boys and I do math. We use Saxon and I couldn't say enough good things about it. The boys LOVE it and they are always excited to do it. Which is amazing, because last year I begged Dylan to do schoolwork with me. He hated it and it's because I made it too structured and boring for him. And I outdid his attention span.  This year he loves it. and again, I give them stickers for every assignment or task completed. I sit with them and can encourage them or help them as they go. Sometimes it is helping Drew draw the curved part of a 3,5, or a 6, and sometimes it is helping Dylan to be ok with the fact that his circle isn't PERFECT!!!  I asked him today, "Dylan, what matters the most? Is it that you do everything perfect, or is it that you try your best?" His response was, "WHAT MATTERS IS THAT I GET IT PERFECT!!!"  Uh-oh. laughing

After this, I have started a new thing where the boys have one hour of quiet time with NO MEDIA. Still working out what that looks like without them waking up Sarah, but I want to to learn how to experience stillness. With no noise.

Those are the two subjects we have eased into so far this year. Tomorrow, or maybe today, I am going to add a block of time into our afternoon in which we practice our reading skills. We are using "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons," and we also use Bob Books.  I don't have much to say about our reading experience this year bc we haven't taken the plunge yet. Dylan is a beginner reader and Drew knows his phonics, and I am looking forward to building on those skills.

We have a Science curriculum that is in the mail and I imagine we will probably do that while we sit at the table and do math. We can easily transition from math to science and I think it will be enough of a change that I can have them sit and concentrate for an hour or so, while Sarah sleeps. And it's hands on, so it's very helpful for Sarah to be away and not grabbing everything. Yet, it is TWO fun things, and not just one long stretch of math, or vice versa. When I put the Saxon Math away, the boys are always aching for more. I think this helps keep the excitement alive. I am hopeful that it will be the same with science.

That's our day in a nutshell. At one of our mealtimes during the day, preferably one that daddy is with us, we read a story from The Jesus Story Book Bible.  We have a flow that works for us in which we read a story from the bible, talk about it and how we can apply it to our lives,  and then we all go around the table and pray. This is our "formal" bible study time together as a family. It's fun, simple, and all of us benefit from it.

So there it is, that's what homeschooling year two, part one, looks like for us! We love it.



Our Homeschool Day II